The Last of Us appears to succeed where BioShock Infinite failed

Although they may not appear similar on the surface, BioShock Infinite and The Last of Us have a common premise. They put players in the role of men hired to escort their female clients to some far-off destination. In the case of Booker DeWitt, BioShock Infinite’s protagonist has to ferry Elizabeth away from Columbia and bring her to New York. With Joel from The Last of Us, he’s hired to smuggle 14-year-old Ellie away from a militarized quarantine zone amid a world destroyed by a zombifying pandemic.

The developers’ goal for both titles is to get players to genuinely care for their charges, and although BioShock Infinite was a great game, it fell short of that target. You liked Elizabeth but it was hard to bond with her. (The game is much better at creating a provoctive world anyway.) On the other hand, I had the chance to preview two levels last night in The Last of Us, and even without context, Naughty Dog appears to be more successful at building ties among the two characters and the player.

Part of that is the game’s striking visuals and the other is in the writing and voice acting. It’s immediately apparent in the first level set in Lincoln. Joel and Ellie are looking for one of his old friends named Bob. This stage showed off the basics of this post-pandemic world.

Welcome to Lincoln, a ravaged town, that players can explore at their own pace.

WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU’RE IN LINCOLN: First off, players have to scavenge. It’s going to be a key skill as the two go across the country. The supplies that Joel finds can be used to build weapons, medical kits and shivs to open locked doors. The Last of Us has a surprisingly strong survivor-horror element where players have to manage these scarce resources. They’ll also have to face decisions using them. For example, I ran into a dilemma where I could use scissors to create a shiv to unlock rooms with potential loot inside or I could use it to craft a melee weapon after my previous pick ax combo broke down.

The other notable element was that there were slight puzzles that players have to negotiate. Most of them involved picking up planks, moving them against walls and climbing atop roofs so you can bring those planks up and make bridges across buildings. (Kids don’t try this stunt at home.) The other one involved mine traps that you have to watch out for and use against the bad guys.

Naughty Dog does a great job at creating an evocative setting. The abandoned town of Lincoln has a creepiness to it as Joel and Ellie have to watch for infected and full-on zombified victims called Clickers. Ellie help brings things to life and build back story by dynamically reacting to the environment. Go into an pizzeria and she’ll comment on an arcade machine sitting against the wall. Find an old nursery and she’ll talk about garden gnomes strewn across the ground. Wait around and she’ll start mumble-humming melodies to fill the silence. It humanizes her in a way that feels natural.

Crafting reinforces the fact that you need to scavenge. With a rag and alcohol, all Joel needs is an empty bottle to create a Molotov cocktail.

As Joel and Ellie search for Bob, they eventually run into a more traps and Joel gets caught up in one that leaves him hanging upside down. He relies on the computer-controlled Ellie to get him down all the while he’ll have to be shooting at infected and Clickers that are drawn to their panicked chatter. It’s an intense, spectacular moment showing off the combat. Aiming for that perfect headshot is hard standing up, easier when crouching and very hard to do in that trap. But during that scenario, you do feel a symbiotic relationship with Ellie as she struggles to get Joel down and the player fights to protect her.

And Naughty Dog ratchets up that tension even more as Bob comes in to rescue them and there’s a mad dash through the town streets to get to a safe house. It’s frightful chaos. The controls don’t lend themselves to running and gunning. This isn’t like Uncharted, and players will be wasting ammo and their time trying to shoot the zombies chasing them. It’s best to just run sometimes and save the bullets.

Players can stun foes, grab them and use them as a human shield.

PITTSBURGH IS DANGEROUS: The other level was shorter but just as dramatic. Joel and Ellie travel to the Steel City. Instead of infected, players have to worry about barbaric humans called Hunters. They try to ambush the pair as they make their way to the destination.

The attack leaves the two groggy in their car after an accident. One Hunter grabs Ellie and the other pummels Joel. And this is where The Last of Us succeeds. After taking care of one thug, I saw Ellie in danger, and there’s a bit of — I don’t know what to call it — maybe a paternal instinct kicking in. I ran there and hit the melee button and rescuing her was satisfying

The rest of the level showed of two things: The first is combat against human AI. They’re much smarter obviously than the infected. The AI will try to flank you, and being under fire from an army of guys made me want a cover system in the game. Unfortunately, there is none. When fighting against Hunters, it’s all about using available resources such as Molotov cocktails to lure foes outside of cover or tossing bricks to cause a distraction.

The fighting can get downright vicious as Joel curb stomps a Hunter.

In battle, Ellie doesn’t get in the way. She’s actually helpful acting as an extra set of eyes, telling you where the enemy is coming from. Running low on ammo made this scenario even harder and emphasized the fact that bullets are like gold in this world. Sometimes it’s better to get close in and melee or use enemies as human shields.

The second part of this partial level showed off some of the nice lighting when they’re raiding the Hunters camp. (Joel has a flashlight and he’ll have to sometimes charge it.) It also showed that The Last of Us has a weapon upgrade system so that players can improve the firearms so they hold more ammo or reload faster. The latter is especially important when you say have a revolver as your only gun and the infected are charging at you.

From that short tidbit of gameplay , The Last of Us leaves me in awe. Narratively, the game seems smart and I was surprised by the core gameplay’s survivor-horror element. It reminds me somewhat of the recently released Metro Last Light. Right now, if the whole campaign is as consistently good as these two levels, then this could be the best game to come out in the first six months of this year. The Last of Us is scheduled for release on the PlayStation 3 on June 14.